Boogie Woogie (album)

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Boogie Woogie
BoogieWoogieC44Album1.jpg
Compilation album by
Harry James, Count Basie, Big Joe Turner, Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, and Meade Lux Lewis
Released1941
Recorded1936–1939
Genre Boogie-woogie
Label Columbia (C44)

Boogie Woogie is a compilation album containing four 10-inch, 78 rpm records of boogie-woogie music. The songs on the album were recorded over a period of three years from 1936 to 1939, then released in 1941 on this compilation album by Columbia Records (C44). Artists featured on the album include Harry James, Count Basie, Big Joe Turner, and the three prominent boogie-woogie pianists of the time, Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, and Meade Lux Lewis. [1]

Contents

Background

Boogie-woogie music was enjoying a surge in popularity in the 1930s and 40s. Record producer John Hammond invited Johnson and Turner to New York to appear at Carnegie Hall along with Ammons and Lewis in the first "From Spirituals to Swing" concert held on December 23, 1938. Count Basie, who was leading a quintet and sextet as well as his big band, also performed at the concert. The boogie-woogie pianists were a sensation, igniting a boogie craze that would last for a decade. [2] Earlier that year, Hammond had paved the way for Jazz performances at Carnegie Hall by organizing the appearance of the Benny Goodman orchestra on January 16, 1938, which featured Harry James on trumpet. [3] [4]

The day after the "From Spirituals to Swing" concert, Alan Lomax recorded Ammons, Lewis and Johnson for the Library of Congress. On December 30, 1938, the three pianists cut the two-sided "Boogie Woogie Prayer" for Vocalion Records; Lewis recorded "Bear Cat Crawl" on the same date, and Ammons recorded the flip side, "Shout for Joy", two days later. The December 30, 1938 session also yielded Turner and Johnson's first record, "Roll 'Em Pete", backed with "Goin' Away Blues." [2]

Ammons and Lewis played "Roll 'Em" with Benny Goodman's band on the Camel Caravan radio program on January 3 and April 11 of 1939; Johnson did the same on January 31. On February 1, at John Hammond's suggestion, Ammons and Johnson each recorded a couple of sides ("Boo-Woo" and "Woo-Woo") for Brunswick Records with trumpeter Harry James, who had just left Goodman's band. Later that year, all three pianists were billed with James's own big band, featuring the then-unknown Frank Sinatra at the Hotel Sherman in Chicago. [2]

The earliest of the recordings, "Boogie Woogie" by Pinetop Smith and recorded by Count Basie, resulted after John Hammond had heard Basie's band over short-wave radio and went to Kansas City to check them out. [5] Hammond invited the band to Chicago in October, 1936 to record four sides which were released on Vocalion under the band name of Jones-Smith Incorporated; the sides were "Shoe Shine Boy", "Evening", "Boogie Woogie", and "Oh, Lady Be Good". Though Basie had already signed with Decca Records, he did not have his first recording session with them until January 1937.

Release

In December 1931, Warner Bros., which owned the Vocalian label, licensed the label to American Record Corporation (ARC). ARC, in turn, was purchased by CBS, and Vocalion became a subsidiary of Columbia Records in 1938. Though all four records in this album set were originally available as singles on the Vocalion or Brunswick labels, they each carry the Columbia label in this set. The album cover was designed by Alex Steinweiss. [1]

Track listing

These songs were featured in a four-disc, 78 rpm album set, Columbia Album No. C44. [1]

Disc 1: (35958)

  1. "Boo-Woo" (C44-1, B 24060), recorded February 1, 1939, by Harry James and the Boogie Woogie Trio (Pete Johnson, Johnny Williams, Eddie Dougherty)
  2. "Woo-Woo" (C44-2, B 24061), recorded February 1, 1939, by Harry James and the Boogie Woogie Trio (Albert Ammons, Johnny Williams, Eddie Dougherty)

Disc 2: (35959)

  1. "Roll 'Em Pete" (C44-3, 23892), recorded December 30, 1938, by Pete Johnson with Big Joe Turner on vocals
  2. "Boogie Woogie" (C44-4, C1659), by Pinetop Smith and recorded October 1936 by Count Basie's Blue Five with James Rushing on vocals

Disc 3: (35960)

  1. "Boogie Woogie Prayer (Part One)" (C44-5, 23890-1), recorded December 30, 1938, by Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, and Meade Lux Lewis (Three Pianos)
  2. "Boogie Woogie Prayer (Part Two)" (C44-6, 23890-2), recorded December 30, 1938, by Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, and Meade Lux Lewis (Three Pianos)

Disc 4: (35961)

  1. "Shout for Joy" (C44-7, 23894), recorded January 1, 1939, by Albert Ammons (Piano Solo)
  2. "Bear Cat Crawl" (C44-8, 23893), recorded December 30, 1938, by Meade Lux Lewis (Piano Solo)

Related Research Articles

Count Basie American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer

William James "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others. Many musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison, plunger trombonist Al Grey, and singers Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes, Thelma Carpenter, and Joe Williams.

Big Joe Turner American blues shouter

Joseph Vernon "Big Joe" Turner Jr. was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." His greatest fame was due to his rock-and-roll recordings in the 1950s, particularly "Shake, Rattle and Roll", but his career as a performer endured from the 1920s into the 1980s.

Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities in the 1870s. It was eventually extended from piano, to piano duo and trio, guitar, big band, country and western music, and gospel. While standard blues traditionally expresses a variety of emotions, boogie-woogie is mainly associated with dancing and Boogie-woogie dance.

Meade Lux Lewis Musical artist

Anderson Meade Lewis, known as Meade Lux Lewis, was an American pianist and composer, remembered for his playing in the boogie-woogie style. His best-known work, "Honky Tonk Train Blues", has been recorded by many artists.

Albert Ammons American jazz pianist, recording artist

Albert Clifton Ammons was an American pianist and player of boogie-woogie, a bluesy jazz style popular from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s.

Pete Johnson (musician) Musical artist

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Clarence Smith, better known as Pinetop Smith or Pine Top Smith, was an American boogie-woogie style blues pianist. His hit tune "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie" featured rhythmic "breaks" that were an essential ingredient of ragtime music, but also a fundamental foreshadowing of rock & roll. The song was also the first known use of the term "boogie woogie" on a record, and cemented that term as the moniker for the genre.

"Honky Tonk Train Blues" is a song written by Meade Lux Lewis, and first recorded in 1927. A proto boogie-woogie song, it has many of the traits that would come to be identified with rock and roll. It is also the first recorded use of the term "honky tonk" in a song.

From Spirituals to Swing was the title of two concerts presented by John Hammond in Carnegie Hall on 23 December 1938 and 24 December 1939. The concerts included performances by Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson, Helen Humes, Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons, Mitchell's Christian Singers, the Golden Gate Quartet, James P. Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy and Sonny Terry.

Michael Kaeshammer Musical artist

Michael Kaeshammer is a Canadian jazz and boogie-woogie pianist.

Axel Zwingenberger Musical artist

Axel Zwingenberger is a German blues and boogie-woogie pianist and songwriter.

Roll Em Pete 1939 song performed by Big Joe Turner

"Roll 'Em Pete" is a blues song, originally recorded in December 1938 by Big Joe Turner and pianist Pete Johnson. The recording is regarded as one of the most important precursors of what later became known as rock and roll.

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Boogie-Woogie Dream (1944) is an independently made short film musical, directed by Hanus Burger, starring Lena Horne, Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson and Teddy Wilson and his orchestra. Scott Yanow identifies it as a sextet.

Rob Agerbeek Dutch musician

Robbert Arris Jules "Rob" Agerbeek is an Indo Dutch boogie-woogie and jazz pianist and winner of several jazz concourses in the Netherlands in the late 1950s. He is regarded as one of Europe's finest jazz pianists, covering the full spectrum of jazz styles from his early days of Boogie-woogie to Chicago traditional Jazz, swing and contemporary jazz.

<i>The Original American Decca Recordings</i> 1992 compilation album by Count Basie

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Boo-Woo

"Boo-Woo" is the A-side of the 78-rpm jazz instrumental single recorded on February 1, 1939 by Harry James and The Boogie Woogie Trio.

Woo-Woo (song)

"Woo-Woo" is the B-side of the 78-rpm jazz instrumental single recorded on February 1, 1939, by Harry James and The Boogie Woogie Trio.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Various – Boogie Woogie". Discogs. Retrieved 2015-12-28.
  2. 1 2 3 Birnbaum, Larry (2012). Before Elvis: The Prehistory of Rock 'n' Roll. pp. 111–113.
  3. ↑ "Benny Goodman brings jazz to Carnegie Hall". History.com. Retrieved 2015-12-30.
  4. ↑ "John Hammond, 76, Critic and Discoverer Of Pop Talent, Dies". The New York Times. July 11, 1987. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  5. ↑ "William "Count" Basie Bio". Count Basie Theatre. Archived from the original on 5 September 2016. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
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